A reflection for Medjugorje Message of October 25, 2006

“Dear children! Today the Lord permitted me to tell you again that you live in a time of grace. You are not conscious, little children, that God is giving you a great opportunity to convert and to live in peace and love. You are so blind and attached to earthly things and think of earthly life. God sent me to lead you toward eternal life. I, little children, am not tired, although I see that your hearts are heavy and tired for everything that is a grace and a gift. Thank you for having responded to my call. ”

This is an unusual message, not so much for its contents, but for its tone. The contents regard, as always, the need to convert, return to God, surrender to Him, and the need to undertake a journey towards the eternal life seriously, consciously, and with deter-mination. The tone, on the other hand, is not that of an invitation, but of reproach. Used as we are to being urged and spurred on, this message surprises us because rather than a call it appears more to capture a situation of distance between us and God.

“Dear Children, Today the Lord has permitted me to tell you again that you live in a time of grace.” The heavens are still open over mankind and the world, but are we aware of it? “You are not conscious, my Children, that God is giving you a great opportunity to convert and to live in peace and love.” It is indeed so, and certainly many of us are guilty of this omission, including myself… but do not abandon us Mother! “Were you not willing to help us, since we are ungrateful children and undeserving of your protection, we would not know whom to turn to,” we say to you in the supplication to the Queen of the Rosary of Pompei, which we repeat today.

The time in which we live is a time of grace, an opportune time to convert and live in peace and love. Let us accept this opportunity and the celestial grace that accompanies it before it is too late. I am reminded of the lamenting of Jesus over Jerusalem and His words: “If you in your turn had only understood on this day the message of peace! But, alas, it is hidden from your eyes! Yes, a time is coming when your enemies will raise fortifications all round you, when they will encircle you and hem you in on every side; they will dash you and the children inside your walls to the ground; they will leave not one stone standing on another within you - and all because you did not recognize your opportunity when God offered it!” (Lk 19:42-44).

The way of peace and love is not yet hidden from our eyes. Though we are so blind and tied to earthly things and concern ourselves with the earthly life, the heavens are still open, and grace can still awaken us from this slumber, from this torpor that dampens the flame in our soul. However, we must decide now, with resoluteness, for the total conversion Mary asked of us in last month’s message. “God has sent me to lead you towards eternal life,” says Mary. With her as guide we cannot fail to reach destination if we truly desire it. Mary is not tired of assisting and leading us, even though she can see that our hearts are heavy and tired by all that is grace and gift. So not our Mother, but we are tired; we are weighed down by useless burdens, crushed by illusory feelings of wellbeing, trampled on by towers of “babel”: maybe newly packaged, but the same old trite.

Seduced by the old temptation of managing without God, we have become tired of everything that is grace and gift, we have distanced ourselves from the true, eternal life, from life in God. But let us get up and return to our Father, and tell Him: “Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against You; I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me as one of your servants” (Lk 15:18-19). The Father awaits our return; everything is prepared, all that lacks is our decision. Let us hand ourselves over to Mary with filial surrender, with the trust of small children, and She will know how to turn each of us into a gift for the Father, and fruit of love for our brethren.